John Simpson, GW1, 1991

[alwayslookingup]

Evening all,

bit of a long shot here.

Towards the end of GW1 John Simpson was doing a piece to camera when all of a sudden a Tomahawk cruise missile flew over his head, literally following the line of the street he was standing on.

A few of the youngsters at work are sceptical it actually happened and would love to see it.

I've tried all avenues on You Tube and elsewhere I can think of on the net, to no avail.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in anticipation.

ALU.

[Daysleeper]

In Simpson's book ("From the house of War", I think) he said that film was taken from them by the secret police... I don't remember ever actually seeing it broadcast.

[dead_pan]

I remember it well - it was definitely broadcast. That said, I'm not 100% sure it was John Simpson - are you sure it wasn't Brian Hanraharahan?

I recall the missile disappearing from shot accompanied by the sounds of small arms and triple-A fire.

[Riskman]

Brent Sadler, ITN

Clip 13

1991 Compilation (http://www.itnsource.com/compilations/datesanddecades/1990s/?lr=S17010802)

Simpson referred to it in one of his reports from Baghdad.

R

[TEEEJ]

I had a quick search and found the following. Someone has spliced two unrelated pieces of video together.

The first part shows a small segment of the news footage from 1991.

eMD5dLU73J8

TJ

[dead_pan]

Blimey, 145 quid for that short clip. Talk about money for old rope.

Seems a bit gaff that several missiles follow the same track within a few minutes of each other. Must have been fun to be an Iraqi triple-A gunner on that day.

[Archimedes]

It's at the start of this - part of a BBC programme/series The Gulf War (not sure if it is on DVD)

wEHlI0TRk-4

(Click on the 'watch on youtube' link if the embed fails)

There is certainly more than enough evidence from the man himself that he saw a TLAM go past his hotel and "turn left/right at the traffic lights".

[alwayslookingup]

Morning all,

many thanks for taking the trouble to reply.

Funny how the mind (and memory) plays tricks. I could have sworn it was John Simpson. The first part of the clip in TEEEJ's post is the clip I was thinking about. Maybe at some other point John Simpson commented on it.

Rgds,

ALU.

[Daysleeper]

I found the reference in the Simpson book - From the House of War Page 310-311 ,

"we were arrested as we were filming the fire which the missile had started and, after a fight....the security people got the tape with the cruise going past the window during my report to camera"